Question

We have a vendor application that we extend and deploy via ClickOnce. The vendor also provides a ‘Deployment Manager’ which packages the app and any extensions into a ClickOnce deployment that we publish to a web server. I mention this detail so that it’s understood we don’t really have great control over changing the deployment process.

So, we publish the application to our web server. That works fine, and updates work correctly. On loading the application, it will prompt the user if they want to update the application.

Several of our clients have asked for an ‘MSI installer’. Their users will switch desks quite often, which requires them to re-download the application, as it is saved to the local user folder rather than the roaming profile.

It is very important to us that updates go out as quickly as possible. Therefore, requiring clients to download the latest update in MSI form and deploy using Group Policy is out of the picture.

So, as a compromise, we’d like to be able to offer an initial install that can go out via Group Policy, but require that the updates to the application occur via the web.

Is this possible, and how can I achieve this?

There is a rough answer to my question on MSDN, but there isn’t a very good description on how to achieve it.

What files/directories would I need to zip up to build the initial offline installer? Our deployment already has several versions sitting on the web server.

How do I manipulate the ‘Update URL’ after a deployment?

Answer 1

• Go to Publish tab on your main
  project properties screen.
• Then on Publish Folder Location
  give a local folder. (This will be
  where your initial setup will be
  created)
• Keep Install Folder Location blank
• Click on Updates.. button.
• Give your updates web url in Update
Location.

Configure other settings as you wish.

Edit:

If you want to create/modify the manifest outside VS you can use MageUI.exe